• funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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      7 months ago

      seinfeld pilot

      You know, why we’re here? [he means: here in the “Comedy club”] To be out, this is out…and out is one of the single most enjoyable experiences of life. People…did you ever hear people talking about “We should go out”? This is what they’re talking about…this whole thing, we’re all out now, no one is home. Not one person here is home, we’re all out! There are people tryin’ to find us, they don’t know where we are. [imitates one of these people “tryin’ to find us”; pretends his hand is a phone] “Did you ring?, I can’t find him.” [imitates other person on phone] “Where did he go?” [the first person again] “He didn’t tell me where he was going”. He must have gone out. You wanna go out: you get ready, you pick out the clothes, right? You take the shower, you get all ready, get the cash, get your friends, the car, the spot, the reservation…There you’re staring around, whatta you do? You go: “We gotta be getting back”. Once you’re out, you wanna get back! You wanna go to sleep, you wanna get up, you wanna go out again tomorrow, right? Where ever you are in life, it’s my feeling, you’ve gotta go.

      seinfeld final episode:

      It seems like whenever these office people call you in for a meeting, the whole thing is about the sitting down. I would really like to sit down with you. I think we need to sit down and talk. Why don’t you come in, and we’ll sit down. Well, sometimes the sitting down doesn’t work. People get mad at the sitting.You know, we’ve been sitting here for I don’t know how long. How much longer are we just going to sit here? I’ll tell you what I think we should do. I think we should all sleep on it. Maybe we’re not getting down low enough. Maybe if we all lie down, then our brains will work.

      …what particularly about these bits is either edgy or genius?

        • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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          7 months ago

          I’m just saying that its pretty funny in and of itself that Jerry Seinfeld is like “you can’t say anything in comedy any more” and all his bits are about losing a sock in the washing machine

          • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            Yeah he’s obviously wrong about that and lives in N elite bubble. He’s colored by how he saw the left treat Dave Chappelle and Louie CK, for example. But he also saw how the right treated Lenny Bruce and Dice Clay, for example. He should know better that nobody on the left is actually wanting to put comedians in jail for their jokes, that’s exclusively the province of the right.

            Also, this is the daily mail. It’s probably not even real quote.

            • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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              7 months ago

              Unfortunately for Chapelle and Seinfeld, James Acaster did that bit that absolutely destroyed their whining.

              And Unfortunately for Louis CK, his sex-pest-intimidation is just too memorable.

              Why don’t we mention Michael Richards (Cosmo Kramer) while we’re at it.

              Maybe the issue isn’t “you can’t say anything nowadays” and instead it’s “you can’t say the n-word, the t-slur, and look-its-my-dick-im-jacking-off-at-you nowadays”

              As for Andrew Dice Clay, the man’s schtick was just racism, sexism and pretending to light a cigarette. it was hardly one for the ages.

              And then as for Bruce, yes, him being arrested for saying cocksucker is the only legitimate example of being cancelled for comedy on the list - but also he impersonated a priest and stole donations meant for a leprosy charity, which you’d be cancelled for in 200BC as well as 2024 AD

              • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】@lemmy.world
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                7 months ago

                I don’t think anyone was “cancelled.” That’s a righty-wing bogeyman word with no definition.

                Nothing any of these comedians said or did takes away the fact that when they deliver their acts, they bring down the house. They connect with the crowd and the crowd laughs, involuntarily! The crowds are voting with their laughs and any one of these legendary comedians on an average day can play any room and get laughs. You’d be lucky to witness it. Laughing is involuntary. If the crowd is laughing, can’t say the act isn’t funny, that’s some election denying bullshit. You certainly won’t find it funny if you don’t realize it’s an act. Punchlines aren’t true statements of the comedian’s personal point of view or opinion, they are an act. Sometimes the joke is that the thing was even said in the first place.

                At any rate, all the examples I gave are real things that happened. The three most justifiable shit storms, against Kramer, CK, and to a lesser extent Chappelle, are examples I gave of the left coming after a comedian.

                Bruce, you agree, is as an example of the right coming after a comedian. You are wrong to lump Dice Clay in with CK and Kramer; Dice Clay cleared the way for comedy as an artform, and, again, the crowds laughed.

                A better example I’m sure you’ll also agree is not justified is South Africa, where the political right simply banned stand up comedy as a practice. That’s the usual example, too, in far right countries: no laughing allowed!

                Man, if you can’t find the humor in these people’s acts, not just Seinfeld, but also Dice Clay, or whatever other dirty or sexist or whatever fart jokes you think you’re too whatever to laugh at, all these comics would laugh at your discomfort, which is with one person standing in front of a room full of people and talking for an hour straight. Anyone can buy a ticket. How provocative could it possibly get before they get booed off stage? You should go to a Chappelle set and turn the crowd against him; just explain why he’s not funny like you do online. Should be no problem for you.

                • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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                  7 months ago

                  I’m not debating that they had good gigs and at those gigs made people laugh.

                  I’m saying that they did some shitty things, and their problem is not what they claim - that you can’t do comedy any more. Its that society moved on without them and they don’t know how to be funny any more. Yes they were funny, in context, in their respective haydays, but have since

                  • done a racism
                  • done a sex crime
                  • dated minors
                  • done a hatecrime

                  If I was an Olympic figure skater arrested for robbing and killing the attendant at the gas station, it would be incorrect for me to say “Man people really hate Olympic figure skating nowadays - I guess everyone’s too sensitive about skating, you just can’t skate any more”

                  No, bruv, you blew a teenagers brains out over a kitkat, it’s nothing to do with figure skating.

      • Shardikprime@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        The last office bit is so true specially on Fridays when people have the wonderful idea of pushing to prod, instead of waiting to Monday with all hands available and everything triple checked

    • suction@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Without the show and its success, he wouldn’t be a well known Stand up today. He’s still surfing that wave.

      • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        He was a well-known comic before he did the show. Perhaps not a household name but very few comics ever are. He had already been on Carson like a dozen times, as a stand up in the 80s that’s like the height of fame. You might even say that Seinfeld’s TV show elevated him to a status that no comic had ever before achieved.

        • suction@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Certainly a status he couldn’t have achieved on his own merits. 95% of the people going to his shows go there because they know him through the TV show, not because they’re interested in his stand-up. Nowadays he’s mostly famous for being famous. But a douche, too.